hybrid

heh ... tested the lockup of the LSD the other day, took the m20 some flooring and a chop down into 2nd gear to get it to swing, its quite different to the old m325 one. Its good as it wont be as brutal around corners as I thought. I can now see why the m-coupes have this lock up ratio!

I am

sad too hear ... they have been anything else but bad too me .. even went out of there way to try and save me $$$ on the last round of stuff.

Hey alex, nice looking design you have going there. A few tips if I may. great work with the colours, will stand out well on TV! Im not sure what your budget is with the sign writing. But have you considered going for a full vinyl cover (car condom)? This way you get some paint protection and the ability to do what ever your want .. Was thinking may you could do a clear 'bmw grid' pattern over the silver. Also the CARSPOT logo ... needs a website address under it or something. sorta like this Im more than happy to help out with any design work (for free) for ya or even helping you bang up a complete image.

man, Im glad your ok there. Tell you what I had this happen about 3 months back. Outside the Auckland police station. Taxi ran a red ... I was coming down the hill on a green. about 70kph (as you do when your rolling down that stretch) I hit the anchors and ABS'ed to a stop narrowly missing writing off the e46. I always slow and double look at intersections more so than I did before. its the old story of you cant trust anyone.

Yeah thanks, if you can get some details around the setup too would be awesome just nice to see others. RE: gearbox .. I'm not sure about the getrag fitment so am no help there We are running a ZF m3 5spd

hehe .. it mostly bolts up, you just have to look into the sump situation and the top of the rocker cover eats into the firewall a little bit .. just need to shave a little off the firewall foam. its no major and well documented in various build threads.

yes andrew, you have mis understood me .. anyhoo .. RE: 260 getrag, plenty of people still running the standard running gear, Its not like its going to break when you boost it. Repedative launching from 5000rpm on the drag strip is the killer. The splines are designed to be the weakest link. Its not all over rover if you do one either they are replaceable parts. Is the gearbox going to last as long as if it where in a stock car, ofcorse not, but youll have plenty of time on it none the same. Around the reliablilty issue, its as reliable as you want it to be. If done properly there is no reason it wont last as long as a modded N/A car. The whole turbos are un-reliable debate is pretty tiresome and is put down to fear and a big mis-understanding around the topic. Brendon has a rather modded GSR 1.8ltr (non EVO) doing around 350 hp. The car is at the limits of its stock internals and has been running trouble free like this for 3 years. Keeping up your maintanence intervals and not cheaping out around the parts the matter is key. It always has been and always will be. Its like you wouldnt take a standard WRX rallying and expect it not to break. Think about it, build it right with smart choices on where you spend your money and you will be fine chris. It will also be one hell of a car And you can be proud you did it with a marque engine.

nice No we are using a ZF 5 speed gearbox from a 95 m3 / m-coupe. However a good getrag 260 is more than fine at this range of power.

you had full boost at 2000rpm?!? ... I want one of those, where do I get one! An N/A s50 would be a good choice also. You can easily make a reliable turbo setup if you spend the money in the right areas. If you have access to this engine you are talking about, your most of the way there I say do it if your ready for a bit of work and prepared to spend the money. Remember, when its all over .. your not going to get the money back ever. But yeah man, do it. Come see brendon and myself when its time to buy stuff... have a detailed look at our setup and base your decsions off what we have done (also learn from a few minor mistakes we faced)

nice, if you have vanos .. you can actually control it properly

Traction and suspension work and its fine. Hes already running 9 inch wheels not 7inch biscuits. There are plenty of two wheel drive vehicles running this sort of power. Alot of it has to do with power delivery vs traction as you well know. 350-400 is a good 'safe' rwhp option for what you are wanting to do chris. You will still have a lot of fun you will probably looking at a gt35/40 size turbo for that sort of power. A GT40r is too big. You'll be looking at around 18-19psi for that. With a boost threshold of 3500-4k RPM.

Things to think about before making the decsion. With this type of conversion, there are 101 ways to skin a cat. Many solutions to one problem. All have there benefits vs cost. It up to you what you want to spend. Also set a target and stick to it, For me; my target changed 3 times (m20 turbo, m50 turbo then s50 turbo) How much realistic power do you want from the engine. This is a big factor in the cost, as everything starts getting very expensive. If you want the car as a daily driver, I wouldnt do more than 500rwhp As it really does get stupidly expensive after this. Great thing is .. you have access to the purpose built engine! nice start! Sump, brake's / suspension / drive train / ECU / bracing (or roll cage) Tieing your diff to your cage / brace. Plumbing. at least a 325 manual gearbox (strength). 5 lug conversion? In the engine bay / It will fit if you cut into the fire wall around the tunnel .. basically just shaving it. The stuff we have is more around specific solutions to our problems we faced, IE brakes vs the 5 lug conversion. Can post up some of the points of interest. Best site thats actually not full of kids is e30tech.com and e30zone.co.uk ... there are a couple of people doing s50 conversion on there that we have been following. here are some picutres I use for "goals" What it will exactly look like.

maybe this is what BMW should have done in the first place and just make the m6 / m5 a v12 CSL upgrade anyone ?

so tuff ... nice work

Thats kind of a contradiction, Spacers that have a centric ring slot cut into them and correct length high tensile bolts are far far stronger than the dodgy hack job that is adapters double bolted.

went to direzza's on the e30 I know they are still new but what an awesome tire ... running falkin fk-452's on the e46 and they have better tire wear than the 451's. Again awesome in the wet. As others have said, dont worry about the US marketed stuff that just doesnt really even matter in this country.

sweet .. I think maybe we need to make a spread sheet for people? Of everyones experience with wheel widths. I know when I was looking for info for my e46 I did a lot of research overseas as nobody had done what I'd done in NZ that I know of. (common as muck these days however) Im running 18x8.5 on the rear at the mo on the m325 with 35 offset. Accept its on a m-coupe trailing arms so my offset figures are different. The new set of LMs are 9.5 rears at 32offset. This will of make the rear wheels stick out past the guards, but we are sticking the m3 box guards on so its a non issue for us. there are some minor things you can infact do if you get the wrong offset wheels (obviously you want to try and do it right first time, but all is not lost if so) * Adjustible rear shock towers (will give you an extra 5-8mms inner guard) * Increase offset: Take the wheels to a wheel specialist to lower the offset by shaving and balancing the wheels hub * Mild stretch on the rubber (will lower guard rubbing, sometimes negates the fact to roll the guards or do what I did and rebuild them . * Lower offset: order some quality legal spacers (turner motorsport) EG we needed to get the front wheels from 35mm offset to 20mm as the clearance tollarances for the 6pot calipers required us to be 22mm or under so we used 15mm spacers. You will also need longer centering lugs bolts (turner). Or if you are lucky enough to have true 3 piece wheels just order new dish sections at the correct sizing

done ... it was hard voting against my e46 instinct. ...

that or order these http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html/subca...p;subcat_id=162 what we have for ours running 15mm spacers in the front to bring the offset of the LMs from 35 down to 20mm.

Non-staggered 8inch rear / 8inch front at 20 offset, 17inch would be best If you want staggered, 8.5 rear at 15offset and 8inch front at 20offset, 17inch. Anything more in the front and you will rub on lock. 17inch is the best size for non m3 vehicles (lookwise) If you were prepared to do some guard work, you could look into going to 9's on the rear and 8's on the front. up to you really nice choice in wheels

he he he .. that v12 would be funny to pop in a e30 just coz

hehe yeap know that 360 anywhere ... 19 inch BBS CH's Nice work great to see someone in this country has that enzo. Aint heard about it for a while.

yeah I hear ya, but lowering beyond 50mm is stupid in most cases. Personally Im really not a fan of wheels up in the guards look. To me (and most performance oriantated people) when we see a car like that, the words rangi crosses most peoples minds. Not having a dig, just stating whats on people minds around this topic. All im illustrating above is there are other ways to get the look that I think you are all 'trying' to achieve without doing it the 'wrong' way.